Glenn Dyer’s TV ratings: a bumper ABC night for smart people

The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Seven’s night thanks to the performance grand final of The X Factor which was watched by more than 1.6 million people in metro markets and over 2.5 million nationally. That pushed Seven to the lead and it will win the week, with tonight’s results episode as a bonus to nail down the week, not only in All People, but in the key demos.

Q&A last night featured Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull, pushing the program’s national ratings to close to 1.3 million (including over 900,000 in metro markets). It helped drive the ABC/ABC1 to a clear third in some markets, and the odd second in others (such as Perth). Nine and Ten were left behind by Seven and the ABC respectively.

The ABC’s combination of 7.30 through Q&A was thinking person’s TV. A solid combination and deserved the good audiences: 7.30 had a great final report on a 16-year-old Afghan boy making his way at a Sydney high school. That should be shown every time one of Alan Jones or Ray Hadley’s whackos starts on about refugees. The 7pm ABC News, 7.30, Michael Palin: From Python to Brazil at 8pm, Four Corners, Media Watch and Q&A all had more than one million viewers nationally last night. That’s not the first time that has happened this year. Every program deserved it.

Four Corners (829,000 metro viewers and 1.171 million nationally) ran the Jimmy Savile special from ITV. It deserved to run instead of the BBC Panorama program which was after the event (in terms of the original claims) and looked more at the performance of the BBC than the horrible stories about Savile and his dealings with young girls. The ITV special was the first comprehensive look and triggered the eruption of the scandal and concerns about the BBC’s handling of the story.

It was a powerful program, it was all about the victims and Savile’s behaviour. After watching it last night, you can understand the devastating blows the BBC’s reputation has taken over the Savile stories (from within and outside the BBC), especially when Newsnight, the BBC’s high profile current affairs program, didn’t run its report on the claims about Savile’s behaviour a year ago.

It’s an odd coincidence that Australia and Britain have been gripped by child s-xual abuse stories as 2012 closes. Australia’s is about institutions (and some isolated individuals), Britain’s is about an individual’s depredations that still seem staggering. And of the media in both countries, the Australian media has done far better in reporting the story and forcing change and an inquiry (Fairfax Media, Lateline and 7.30 lately), than the BBC, UK newspapers and other media (with the exception of ITV).

Tonight:Foreign Correspondent on Mongolia’s boom. And then a nice story from World War II. Seven ends The X Factor in two hours, then starts a new series called Grimm. Nine has The Big Bang Theory. Ten has more Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals and then fresh NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles episodes. SBS has the second part of America in Primetime. Watch.

The top 10 national programs (metro & regional combined):

The X Factor (Seven) — 2.504 million.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.736 million.

Nine News (6pm) — 1.675 million.

A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.576 million.

Home and Away (Seven) — 1.567 million.

ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.563 million.

Castle (Seven) — 1.450 million.

Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.225 million.

Michael Palin: From Python to Brazil (ABC1) — 1.196 million.

7.30 (ABC1) — 1.188 million.

The Metro Winners:

The X Factor (Seven, 7.30pm) — 1.667 million.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.144 million.

Nine News (6pm) — 1.133 million.

ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.092 million.

Home and Away (Seven, 7pm) — 1.049 million.

The Losers: Ten, and Nine, just not strong enough as both took the night off because of The X Factor’s performance episode on Seven. Can of Worms, 364,000 metro and national viewers. The X Factor made it tough over on Seven, but that is a very weak figure anyway.Metro News & CA: Nine News won Sydney and Melbourne (the latter by a huge 143,000). Seven News won Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth (by 106,00). A Current Affair won Sydney and Melbourne (by 122,000). Today Tonight won the rest.